But before Nemyr runs to get me stuff, there is something else we need to do.

I pull his sleeve, preventing him from leaving, and tell him. “We cannot leave your son in the Core. It will kill him. He needs to go downstairs.”

I am about to explain why, how he needs to lie on the granite floor or else my dungeon would eat him, but why should I share this information with him? Just a few hours ago, this scary dude turned loving father was ready to slice my insides. So, his inquisitive look does not get an answer and I just keep my mouth shut.

A second pass and then the worried father just nods his head, the look of gratitude still there. I wonder how long that will last.

“Don’t even try to walk,” I tell the kid who I’m not even sure can hear me. “We’ll carry you. Your nervous system is probably all messed up. It would not surprise me if you have to learn how to walk again.”

Nemyr casts me a dark glance. “What?” I ask him. “It’s a miracle he even remembers you. I mean… he was out for a long time.”

That’s good enough for Nemyr who sighs and then bends over and picks his boy up, carries his limp body in his arms as if he is a baby, and we go down.

“He will need blankets and something good to eat. Soups. And fruits. Something easy to digest. Something with a lot of… vitamins”

“Vitamins?” he asked me, all confused.

Yeah, I know I'm being a smartass here, but I just love the way he looks at me perplexed and all. “Yeah. You know, like lemons and oranges.”

“I do not know what those are.”

I sigh. “Do you have a cabbage? Round and green... grows out of the ground. It has a shit load of vitamin C. That should help him.”

“Yes, that we do have. Does it have to be rotten?”

“No. But it cannot be cooked. Has to be either fresh or preserved in salt or vinegar.”

“Yes. We have those.”

“Good. You take care of that. And the dwarfs. And I’ll take care of your son.”

We both look at him. He does not look good. Pale. Fading.

“Father…” he calls in a faint voice.

“Yes… I’m here.”

“How is Mama? And Erna?”

His father looks at me and does not know what to say.

"Has Kornia asked about me?" the boy asks.

I can see his father opening his mouth to say something, just to frown and shut it.

“You just need to take care of yourself now, champ,” I tell him. "You just need to rest and don't worry about anything else."

“Who are you?” he asks me.

“I’m the guy that is giving you a second chance, buddy. And I’m glad I can do it. You just rest."

I check his health. I think I will have to go and get him another health booster. It has notched down to 11 now.

When we go down, his father lays him down on a bed of dry grass that Oollie uses for his bed, then he caresses his hair, gives him a kiss on the forehead, and leaves, promising to be back really soon.

I look around. Wolves are silent I almost forgot about them. They somehow look worried.

I decide to open the gate and see how they behave. I do not know why. Just the thought comes to me out of nowhere. They seem so calm, I somehow think I should not let them be imprisoned any longer.

Strangely, Whitehead comes out, steps slowly to the kid, almost squealing, and licks the kid's hand. As if that will help him somehow. Then he looks at me and... runs up and out. And is gone! Shit. I knew it. I should not have let him go.

But twenty minutes later, he brings a rabbit. One that still bleeds. Freshly killed. Whitehead did not eat it. He brought it for us. How are you not going to love that?

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

An hour later, there is a presence I feel at the entrance. It’s an old woman. She has a bag of things over her shoulder.

"Nemyr told me to bring you these," she says, drops the bag by the entrance, and hurries away from the Dungeon before I could even invite her in.

If I did not know better, I guess... I guess she found me scary.

But I don't complain. There is a cooking pot, a bunch of vegetables including onions, potatoes a small head of cabbage, and a big chunk of smoked bacon. Now, bacon is not all bad. A lot of vitamin B, but… I do not know if it’s easy to digest. It might be too difficult for him to digest it. Then I figure something out. The boy might need some iron. Yes. Red beets. That’s what I will ask for next.

I do not know how to skin the rabbit, but… to my surprise, Oollie takes over. It must be his preset intuition guiding him. A small knife that the man sent goes a long way, and before you know it, we are making a stew!

I wake the kid up to have at least a few spoons of it. Can’t give him a cabbage. I think that would just be hard on this stomach. Maybe later. But a few spoons of hot stew he does take before it starts just drooling down his chin, not willing to swallow anymore. That’s fine. I’ll keep it warm, and in an hour I’ll give him another few spoons. See if he will have a bit more. Maybe a piece of bread. Maybe I’ll soak it in the soup and give it to him if I see he can chew it.

Sitting there by Whitehead and looking at him, makes me think of when Tomas was very sick with a fever. My wife took a few days off work and stayed home to take care of him. I… I decided to go to work. Well… I… am ashamed. I had some holiday days I could have taken. Why didn’t I use them? What the hell did I get from living only to work? Oh, how I missed that chance. I could have stayed home and made him a rabbit stew and held his little hand, read him some fantasy book, and talked to him he was going to grow up to become whatever he wanted to be. He just needed to be strong and get better. Oh, how I missed those chances to be there for him.

The wolf comes closer and lays his head on my lap. I put my hand on him, and pat him. I realize I did not feed him today.

I take some of the stew, drop some of their treats inside, and take it to their cell which now I keep open. They eat together.

I even risk petting them while they eat.

I was so worried about how I was going to train them, and all I had to do was just be nice to them. Animals are the best. I was circled by people for so long that I’ve forgotten all about it.

Nemyr returns late in the night. He does not say anything but lays two huge rice bags on the ground.

Whitehead shows him his fangs, but I raise my hand and he knows I do not want him to growl.

“How's my boy?” Nemyr asks.

“Had a little bit of rabbit stew. Now sleeping. But he is just holding on to the thread”

“A rabbit stew?”

“Yeah, Whitehead caught it. Brought it in here for us.”

“Oh… well, I bought some chicken," he says and drops a bag with a dead chicken. Then the bigger bag and I see a dwarf inside, sleeping like a baby.

“Are they all like that?”

“Yes. My friend Old Gerwin is down by the camp, making sure they still sleep.”

“Well, we need to bring them all inside. Into the cells.”

"Sure. "

“Whitehead, come with me. We have some carrying to do,” I say and head out right away.

Their campground is a bit further deeper inside the forest than the last one, but it was easy to find since there is a campfire burning. And this time, it seems they came fully prepared. They seemed to have packed for a whole season. If not two.

I do not make Whitehead carry any of those stinking dwarfs. Would not do that to him. But I put a bunch of blankets and clothes on his back, tie it up, and tell him to go up. I myself look at what I can use to carry the stuff in. What helps the matter greatly is that I find a wooden wheelbarrow below a heap of supply sacks that these Dwarfs miners brought along. It has a single wooden wheel with an iron ring around it. That should do it.

So, one dwarf in a wheelbarrow and up the slope we go.

Each cell is big enough that we can put all twelve of them inside. But, I choose to keep four of them in a cell. I think I may be able to control them better that way.

By the time we bring all of them in and safely lock them all up, the night is almost all gone.

I check on the kid and he starts to burn with fever, so it’s time for another healing potion.

What is nice is that I'm not alone anymore. The wolves follow me wherever I go now, obediently, a few meters behind me, as if they are guarding me.

“Now, I need to tell you something,” I tell Nemyr.

“What?”

“The faster we bring stuff in here, the faster I can get energy, level up, and help your boy. I’m keeping him alive the best I can, but… he is fading. I do not know why. I gave him medicine.”

“Please, I’ll do anything. Just make sure he lives.”

“You should go down to the village. Bring me whatever you find. Metals, dead skins, wool, vine, ale, anything. For all I know, it all counts,” I tell him but he is looking at me as if I talk gibberish. Maybe I’m not making myself clear. “While you go and do that, I and Old Gerwin will take all that the Dwarfs had brought here. He can help me take it to the cave. Faster the better. We'll spread everything over the ground. Tents and everything, even their shoelaces."

“You can have my sword and knives,” he says right away.

“That might only be good for a single energy unit. We need a thousand of them. So, keep those, but bring… everything else you find that you might not even need. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“It does not have to be a sword. Anything of metal. Any vegetable. A ball of wool. An old bag. Go fill the cart, and bring more. And you will need help. There are two kids that I helped a few days back. They can help carry the stuff too. Verne and Nora.”

“There are people I know who can help me. No need to involve any children.”

“Well, okay, but, now, it's time to ask them for a favor. The food can be even rotten. Bones. Doesn’t matter. Those goblins are being processed and I think they have already given me over twenty units of energy.”

“I think I understand. You need to feed the Dungeon.”

“Yes.”

Just to make sure we are on the right track, I double-check.

“SAMS, what is my projected energy production for today with the stuff we have inside?”

[Projected LIC Energy Production in the next 12 hours: 50 units.]

“You see, only 50 units. That’s not enough. We don’t have twenty days. We need to step the game up.”